Jharkhand youth sentenced to death for beheading girl (Lead)

Terming it the rarest of rare cases, a Ranchi court Wednesday awarded the death sentence to a youth, Bijendra Kumar, for beheading a girl in a college campus here last year.

"The court considers it the rarest of rare case. The murder was premeditated. The accused attacked the girl till she died," said S.B. Sharma, government lawyer in the case.

Ranchi District Sessions Judge S.H. Kazmi had April 26 convicted Bijendra in the gruesome murder of Khushboo April 27 last year when she was coming out from the classroom after appearing in the intermediate examination in St. Xavier's College. Bijendra tried to escape but college students overpowered him and handed him over to police.

The awarding of the sentence was earlier fixed for April 30 but was deferred for Wednesday. The victim was a resident of Tupudana in Ranchi and had met Bijendra in Jamshedpur while she was living with her grandmother.

Bijendra, an engineering student, expressed his love for Khushboo but she turned his proposal down. Khusboo shifted to Ranchi and her marriage was later fixed. Bijendra was putting pressure on her to marry him.

Expressing satisfaction over the death sentence, Khushboo's father, Maheshwarnath Sahdeo said: "The death sentence will give solace to Khushboo's soul. The judgment will prevent the repetition of such incidents."

The students and principal of St. Xavier's college have expressed satisfaction at the verdict.

"At last, justice has been done to the victim's family," said the college principal.

"Fear had gripped the college campus after Khushboo's murder. Anyone could be killed in such fashion. The sentence is a lesson to people like Bijendra," said Swati, a student of the college.